“Learning is not attained by chance.” – Abigail Adams

     I hope everyone enjoyed the winter break. We were so very fortunate to have beautiful weather, so I hope you all took the opportunity to get outside.

     Mr. DeVries sent home a note before vacation informing everyone about our commitment to sing in chapel on Sunday, March 19th at 10:45am. Students are to wear their uniforms, and we will meet in their music classroom at 10:25 am. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. DeVries directly at [email protected].

     In ELA we are reading “Judy Moody Saves the World” in our reading anthology. We are also going to read “My Smelly Pet” from Judy Moody. Both of these stories are humorous fiction. We will be studying story structure and theme, and our target strategy will be monitor/clarify.  Our vocabulary words are recycle, project, dripping, carton, complicated, pollution, rubbish, hardly, shade, and global. We will be using context clues to help identify their meanings. We are going to work on adjectives in grammar. We will especially focus on words that tell what kind, how many, and articles (a, an, and the). Our spelling words for the week all have the vowel + /r/ sounds in air and fear.  The words are air, wear, chair, stairs, bare, bear, hair, care, pear, pair, share, near, ear, beard, buy, year, earring, and compare. I will be testing comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, and spelling on Friday.

     Rocket Math is continuing and moving forward with great success. As a class, we are tweaking our routine, so that it works for all of us. We have decided that we will have Rocket Math homework every night, except on Fridays. Please continue to review Rocket Math homework every night with your child. It only takes 5 minutes, and it makes a world of difference in his/her multiplication fluency.  

     Before vacation, we started fractions. I will be reviewing everything we have done so far, and we will have a quiz on Tuesday. It will cover equal parts of a whole, equal shares, unit fractions of a whole, fractions of a whole, and fractions on a number line.

     In Science we are studying ecosystems with few trees.  These ecosystems include grasslands, tundras, and deserts. We will also explore ecosystems with many trees such as deciduous, coniferous, and tropical forests.

     We are studying South Africa’s history, and how the europeans affected change.

Lent begins this week. We do not have any memory work due. Remember: we are singing in church on Sunday, March 19th at the 10:45 service.

     If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know at nperovich@trinityhicksville.  Have a blessed week!